


Can't Do This Anymore

by 58srl29



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Endgame, F/M, Infinity War, Pepperony - Freeform, thanos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:13:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24393346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/58srl29/pseuds/58srl29
Summary: Pepperony one shot - set in the five year gap in Endgame, shortly after Morgan is born.  Pepper is a busy new mother and Tony is being...Tony Stark.  Mostly fluff.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Kudos: 18





	Can't Do This Anymore

_"You want to what?!" Pepper asked, confused, yet amused, with a tone of disbelief on her voice._

_Leaning down to spit in the sink, she washed out the bowl and her toothbrush with the running water, then dried off her hands once shutting it off. The figure of Tony Stark appeared in the doorway to the bathroom, towel in hands to wipe off the grease from whatever he had been working on in the shed that particular night._

_"It'd be good for me, I think, you know?" he argued, dancing around it. "Something different. Responsibilities...that aren't...Iron Man saving the world."_

_Narrowing her eyes, Pepper watched Tony through the mirror, listening intently. "And what about me? Did you think about that while you were tinkering?"_

_"I..." he started, a hand out holding the towel with pressed lips; he was caught. "...am now."_

_"Uh huh," Pepper simply muttered back, rolling her eyes and shutting off the bathroom light before pushing past him to exit and take her earrings off by the dresser._

_Tony, chasing after her, was persistent, and was not letting up on the suggestion...at all._

_"Come on, Pep. I've changed, you said so, yourself."_

_"Tony, the world can't handle another Stark!" Pepper laughed, shaking her head and lying her diamond studs in her jewelry dish._

_"That's a lie," he retorted instantly._

_"Is it?"_

_"You're a Stark."_

_"That's...different, and it's Potts-Stark."_

_"You gonna sign the checks that way? That's a lot of names. Just 'Stark' goes a lot smoother, don't you think so? I think so," Tony rambled, off topic._

_Smirking, Pepper let her hair down, still facing the opposite direction. "Do you now?"_

_"Yes."_

_"I haven't heard you say that before," she teased, grinning at how childish he was being with his begging._

_"Really? I thought I mentioned it."_

_Sighing, Pepper held her grin and finally turned back to her husband; weird, still. Husband? Tony Stark? No one could have paid her enough to believe that years ago. Then again...no one could have paid her enough to believe the aliens and Thanos and...the actual end to the world, but here they were._

_"Tony, I know how you get when you want things, but do you honestly think bringing a...a baby into this disaster of a world is a good idea? How would we possibly handle that?"_

_"Honey, I tried to save the world," Tony argued, grabbing Pepper's hand in his. "Remember? It didn't work. So what, now we stop populating it?"_

_"'We'," Pepper snorted in response, "are not responsible for rebuilding the planet!"_

_"What if our kid fixes it. Figures out how to...reverse time or something," he offered. "Could be a genius."_

_"Right..."_

_"Pep," Tony begged, squeezing her hand. "Things are different. I want this. For me, for..."_

_Frowning, Pepper caught his dark eyes and sighed again, not wanting to cave but having no choice. "Us?"_

_"Yes. See, you still get me."_

_"You said you're giving up on saving the world, but now this?"_

_"Not 'the' world, ours. We have a second chance here, Pep. I need to do something good with it. ...Please?"_

_Groaning, the red head glanced at the ceiling of their small, lakeside cabin's bedroom. Of course he wouldn't take no for an answer. And it wasn't the worst idea, it was just...not something she'd put any thought into. Things since he came back were tough enough, why make them even more stressful?_

_"I can't believe you just asked me for a baby..."_

And as if on queue, the sounds of a crying baby brought Pepper back to reality. Morgan hadn't had a single night of solid sleep yet, and it was going on six months. Six months of noise and interrupted sleep and no normalcy to life at all whatsoever.

Frustrated, the dishes she was cleaning were left in the sink as Pepper gave up cleaning for the care of their baby girl. Of course, Tony was out in the shed, working on God knows what, leaving her to all of the household duties and the baby. He had been there for the pregnancy and her birth, but around month four, he was back to his old habits...working on something, regardless of it it was an old suit like it used to be.

Part of her longed for those simple days to come back. The big house, the bots to clean, the idea that the worst thing he was doing was building a new suit. At least then she knew what he was getting into...to an extent. Now..now it was questionable. He didn't sleep often, and at first, the nightmares were worse than after the original attack on New York. Then he started busying himself with work around the cabin he insisted they needed instead. On a good day, he would be fixing one of the animal's stalls. On a bad day...time travel had been discussed several occasions. Anything to keep his mind distracted.

"Hey, sweetie, mommy's got you..." she sung to the baby when she made it to their crib, pulling her up and into her arms for comfort. 

Then, she reached for the baby monitor on the table top nearby, knowing Tony had another end of it in his work space. She was convinced he had it off half the time, but was worth a shot.

"Tony, Morgan's awake again, can you come in here, please?" she requested.

To her surprise, there was static and then a response.

"Yeah, got it, ah-" he stammered, followed by a loud crash of metal materials and tools. "Ow. Shit. I'll...be right there."

With a heavy sigh, Pepper set the monitor back down and waited for him to come crashing through the house to the upstairs bedroom. He wasn't the quietest, despite how petite he was, especially when he'd been awake for who knows how long. He'd need coffee, she was sure, instead of coming to bed like a normal person after settling Morgan.

The baby was still crying, despite Pepper trying to soothe her and cuddle her over her shoulder, but the sound was white noise to her anymore. Morgan didn't sleep well, taking after her dad, apparently, and mom couldn't wait until the day there was a steady sleep schedule for her.

Footsteps sounded on the creaky stairs, interrupting that thought, and then Tony appeared, knocking on the door lightly before entering, out of breath from rushing in.

"Sorry, I-" he started.

But Pepper turned the baby away from his loud entrance and scowled at him.

"Is that blood?!" she gasped, shock on her face at the trickle of red liquid on his forehead.

Touching his face, he gathered some of it on his finger tips, then inspected it with his brow pressed in confusion.

"Huh, guess it is..."

"What on Earth are you working on out there?!"

"Uh," he hesitated, which didn't comfort her at all. "...Stuff."

"Stuff?" she repeated, monotone and not buying it. "That's...descriptive."

"It's a gift," he suggested instead. "For you, actually."

"Sure it is..." she sighed, then pried their daughter off of her shoulder and handed her to him. "You know what would be a great gift? Holding the child you begged me for. Can you please help me out here, I left the dishes in the sink, and-"

"I, uh, got the solder running in the shed, so-" he protested as she was passed to him, but shut himself up with a frustrated defeat and pressed his lips together, accepting her walking toward the door.

"-I would really appreciate a hand."

"Got it."

"God forbid the solder waits..." she muttered, going back to the kitchen.

But Tony was hot on her feet, carrying the baby along down to the main floor. If she couldn't hear his walking, the crying was a red alert of its own.

"What was that?" Tony snapped as she went back to drain the sink, both of them getting a hot head from lack of sleep.

"I would just be nice," she tried to say on a level voice, "if we had a little help in the house from time to time."

"I'm helping," Stark argued.

Groaning, Pepper turned and leaned against the sink, her hands gripping the counter at her sides. He just didn't get it.

"Are you?"

"Yes. Look, I'm holding her right now."

"Oh, please! You tried to give me some lame excuse about-"

"I'm trying to not burn down our property," he defended in a hush, noting Morgan finally settling down just a little bit. "Unless you want to lose this too?"

"What, like you lost the rest of the world?"

It was mean. It was over the line and the second she said it, Pepper regretted it. She closed her eyes, noting how for the first time, Tony didn't have a snarky response, and it was...mostly silent, aside from the small sobs still coming from their child.

When she did open her eyes to face her husband, he had a straight, blank face, and Morgan was clinging onto his shirt for dear life. At least she found comfort in her father in the small times he was around.

"I'm sorry-" she tried, but Tony shrugged it off.

"Okay, I deserved that."

"No, you didn't." Another sigh. "Tony, I can't...I don't want to do this anymore," she admitted on a whisper.

"What, dishes? Leave 'em. I'll finish it after I clean up the garage."

"What, to avoid coming to bed again?" she asked, concerned more than anything now that the anger had defused. "I can't do this. This...cleaning the house and taking care of your daughter and going to bed alone every night. You're back in the garage or the shed or wherever you've been, just like you locking yourself in the lab with the suits, and-"

"The suits did nothing. Those people still died."

But Pepper didn't want to talk about that anymore. She didn't want to debate the past, she wanted the future to be somewhat normal again, not the stand still it had been since...Thanos.

"This isn't about the suits, it's about you...us."

"We're fine, or are we not?"

"We...Tony, you might have given up Iron Man, but you gave up a lot more, too," she tried to explain, hoping he'd shut up and listen. "What happened to the Avengers? They were friends, too."

"We lost."

"And the guy I married that didn't want to be anything like his father? Where is he? Because right now, you're constantly...working on something else, ignoring your daughter that you begged me for, and-"

"We talked about it, you agreed!" he gasped quietly.

Morgan was now silent, fast asleep on her dad's shoulder, thank God.

"I don't want to spend every day in this tiny house, worrying about when she's going to cry next or if you'r coming to bed. I need something to give, I need a change. I need to get out, to see other human people, to-"

"No one's left, Pepper!" Tony snapped.

"Morgan was born in a hospital, Tony! Things might not be normal, but they still exist!"

"It's safer here," he challenged. "I can protect you here. You, and her."

"We don't need protected, we need normalcy! We need to...to take our daughter to the park, let her have friends, check on your friends!"

"We want different things, we're not friends," was his disagreement, to which Pepper rolled her eyes yet again.

"What, so because you have different views on what happened, you can't support each other still?"

He tried to make a response, but nothing came. Maybe she was right. But it wasn't just about Thanos, it was about how to deal with it. For once in his life, he had the things he wanted. A family. A quiet life, not in the public eye. Maybe that was what Pepper thrived on after being his PA and CEO of Stark Industries for so long, but he was over it.

"I don't want to try to change things and lose this," he finally answered, not a direct response, but good enough.

"Well, I can't do 'this' anymore, Tony. I need help, I need you to be here, not...not tinkering around in the garage like the day you hired me!"

"Okay."

"Be a parent. And a husband."

"You're right."

Staring at him with surprise, Pepper finally let her shoulders relax. Somehow, she believed she got through to him. How long that would last...she didn't know.

"I'll...let me clean up, turn some shit off," he offered, handing Morgan back to her mother now that she was asleep again.

"Tony-" Pepper protested.

"Five minutes," he interrupted, insistent. "Promise."

"Not...that. You can't say...that...around her!"

"What, shit?" he grinned stupidly. 

"That's three times in the last twenty minutes!"

"She won't remember it."


End file.
